The History of The Watkins Printing Company

 

The history of The Watkins Printing Company started when Cyrus Watkins and Carl Eierman bought a small commercial printing company in 1923 and formed a partnership known as Watkins and Eierman. 

 

Watkins and Eierman operated as a job letterpress printer profitably through the 1920's but began to struggle, as did all business during the beginning of The Great Depression.  On the day of the infamous Bank Holiday in 1933, another disastrous event struck the partnership with the untimely auto collision and death of partner Carl Eierman.

 

Cy Watkins, struggling with the terrible existing business conditions, was somehow able to keep his focus and convinced the bank to loan him enough capital to buyout the interests of heir Eierman and continue to operate as The Watkins Printing Company.  The business continued to operate profitably through the 1930s and the war years of the 1940's.

 

In the late 1940's, after the end of World War II, his sons, Don and Dwight, entered the business and successfully changed the letterpress operation to the new and more efficient offset lithography multicolor printing process.

 

The second-generation progression through the 1950 - 1980's period climaxed with the introduction of heatset web offset.

 

In the 1980's, the third generation, consisting of Dwight's daughter and two sons; Tamara, David and Eric, came on the scene and successfully transitioned the company into a mode of production automation including digital prepress, press-auto color and registration control and in-line binding and mailing.

 

In 2003, Dwight's son-in-law; William Green, joined the team in sales. Tamara and Eric became the Co-Owners of the company in 2008. The company then welcomed Tamara and William's daughter Emily in sales in 2011 and her brother Brock joined the logistics team in 2014.

 

In 2019, Tamara Watkins Green and her family became 100 percent owners of the company. William Green became President and Tamara Green the CEO.  Brock Clary was then named VP, Operations and Emily Lust, VP, Finance.

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In 2020, Watkins became a certified partner of the WBE and Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).  Secondly, William and Tamara's son-in law, Jon Lust, joined the company as VP, Sales and nephew, Kurt Green, as VP, Digital Marketing.

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2021 brought about major technology and automation improvements including the installation of a fully automated RMGT 9 Series 8-Color Long Perfector with LED-UV curing.  The offset press is loaded with technology including RMGT’s Insta.Color makeready, LED-UV instant curing and most importantly a one and done 4 over 4 configuration. May 2021 also brought the introduction of a new service:  WATKINS DIRECT - Omni Channel Marketing.  Watkins Direct is designed to improve Direct Mail by helping entrepreneurs, small businesses and other organizations improve their response rates for prospects, clients, donors and alumni.

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We are all proud of our heritage and are working very hard to keep our family traditions alive by focusing on and keeping abreast of the efficiencies that best meet our clients needs.